Aura Saarikoski

5th – 28th February 2016

Research Into Grey

Aura Saarikoski: still image from video, 2016

Research Into Grey is an essey-like exhibition by Aura Saarikoski with photographs, a monologue and a video piece made for this exhibition. Works from Research Into Grey have been shown at Mänttä Art Festival in 2014, at Institut Finlandais in Paris in 2015 and in Saarikoski’s solo exhibition at Hippolyte Studio in Helsinki in 2015.

I lived on the biggest island of my hometown when the foggy mornings started to increase. I was standing on the shore and tried to see the sea. The sound of foghorns tells me I’m not the only one lost. Is there a densest point to the fog and if so, can I reach it? Is it always already in the past, having moved elsewhere?

In a photo from 1961, Yves Klein walks towards nothingness and back. At what point is nothingness if air is filling all the gaps? I repeat the act and walk towards the densest point and back. In the end I suspect the fog was self-imposed.

I’m thinking that the desire of the impossible attempt to find meanings for nothingness is a metaphor for the artist work and finding oneself. The densest point of the fog is the wish of crystallisation of meaning. The fog hides and protects and you can get lost in it. On the other hand the fog gives space for boldness and courage to trust your intuition.

The grey card is a reference to the photographer’s tool to master the tonal range and control of the recorded. In the density of the fog, I compare the grey of the grey card to the grey landscape to reveal the colours of reality.

The opening of the exhibition is on Thursday 4th of February at 6.00 p.m. Welcome!